Alexander "Sandy" Mair Courage, Jr. (December 10, 1919 – May 15, 2008) was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and film. He is best known as the composer of the theme music for the original Star Trek TV series.

Apart from his work as a respected orchestrator, Courage also contributed original dramatic scores to films, including two 1950s westerns: Arthur Penn's The Left Handed Gun and André de Toth's Day of the Outlaw. He continued writing music for movies throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, including the score for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which incorporated three new musical themes by John Williams in addition to Courage's adapted and original cues for the film. Courage's score for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released on CD in early 2008 by the Film Music Monthly company as part of its boxed set Superman - The Music.

The composer Jerry Goldsmith and Courage teamed on the long-running television show The Waltons in which Goldsmith composed the theme and Courage the Aaron Copland-influenced incidental music. In 1988 Courage won an Emmy Award for his music direction on the special Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas. In the 1990s, Courage succeeded Arthur Morton as Goldsmith's primary orchestrator.[1]

Courage frequently collaborated with John Williams during the latter's tenure with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Star Trek theme[edit]

Courage is probably best known for writing the theme music for Star Trek, and some other music for the series. Courage was hired by Gene Roddenberry to score the original Star Trek television show at Jerry Goldsmith's suggestion, after the latter turned down the job. Courage reportedly became alienated from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry over the latter's claim for half of the music royalties. (Roddenberry wrote words for Courage's Star Trek theme song, not because he expected the lyrics to be sung on television, but so that by claiming credit as the song's co-writer, Roddenberry could receive half of the royalties from the song.)[2]

Notably, after later being Goldsmith's orchestrator when Goldsmith composed the music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Courage orchestrated Goldsmith's adaptation of Courage's own original Star Trek theme.